1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to binders; and, more particularly, to ring binders of the type having a rigid or semi-rigid cover consisting of a spine, front and rear cover members hingedly connected to the spine, and a conventional ring-type metal binder element commonly referred to as "ring metals" having two (2), three (3) or more rings secured to the binder element in vertically spaced relation and adapted to be manually opened and closed in a conventional manner by actuating levers at the upper and lower ends of the binder element so as to enable documents to be mounted on, or removed from, the rings.
More specifically, the present invention relates to an improved ring-type binder construction of the foregoing type wherein the binder's spine is laminated in construction, employing an inner lamination to which the conventional binder element and any metal hinge elements are fixedly secured and an outer lamination which is permanently secured to the inner lamination in face-to-face relation therewith, thus totally concealing all fastener elements projecting through the inner lamination, presenting a totally smooth uninterrupted external spine surface suitable for applying identifying labels, tags or other cataloging information anywhere on the spine from top to bottom, and wherein the outer lamination is slightly wider than the inner lamination so as to extend beyond the front and back edges of the inner lamination, thus defining front and rear partially enclosed cavities for housing the interleaved portions and pin elements of conventional front and back metal hinges of piano-type construction.
2. Background Art
There are, of course, a wide range of conventional binder constructions available in the marketplace including, for example, ring-type and post-type binders. Typically, however, a ring-type binder includes a conventional metal two-ring or three-ring binder element which is secured to the binder's spine by means of rivets which are exposed on the outer surface of the spine. The front and rear covers of the binders are typically secured to the spine by means of hinges which sometimes take the form of "living hinges" and other times take the form of separate piano-type metal hinges secured to the adjacent vertical edges of the spine and the front and rear covers by rivets or other through-type fastening elements. In the case of "living hinges", the binder's spine is, therefore, generally characterized by the presence of exposed portions of the heads of the rivets used to secure the conventional ring-type binder element; and, where separate hinges are employed, the spine is generally characterized by the presence of exposed rivet heads or the heads of similar fasteners used to secure the hinges as well as by the heads of the rivets used to secure the conventional ring-type binder element.
Typically, however, the user of these types of ring-type binders desires to employ the exposed surface of the spine for cataloging information applied thereto in the form of labels, tags and the like; and, it has been found that the lack of a smooth, clear, uninterrupted surface on the exterior portion of the spine is undesirable and interferes with free application of such cataloging information anywhere on the spine that the user might desire.